The Variant
by Varien Dathemire
Summary: The Variant is a dangerous new strain of the Virus, similar to BLACKLIGHT, but with almost unlimited potential. Follow the story of the Prototypes, as they try to uncover more information on The Variant, and what his plans are. - Updates coming less frequently due to school resuming
1. Prologue The Varient

Alex Mercer had been killed by the one they call Sergeant James Heller. The world would never see him again, and it was unlikely there would be another viral breakout, unless Gentek tried to Weaponize it again.

That's what they thought anyway.

I had been someone once, I had also worked on engineering BLACKLIGHT, but I hadn't worked with Alex Mercer. The resulting strain of virus that I had engineered was similar to BLACKLIGHT, but it worked in a slightly different way. See, the VARIENT strain of virus wasn't quite as limited as BLACKLIGHT, it could absorb biomass from deceased life forms. Not only that, but it also was focused by _will_, if it _willed_ itself to be shaped differently, it could shape itself differently, _if_ it had enough Biomass to form the shape.

I knew that all too well, it saved me from death, but made me into a monster as well. I watched through the first outbreak as Elizabeth Greene carried out the will of REDLIGHT, the original Virus Strain. I watched as she created Hunters, Hydras, and the MOTHER, and finally, I watched as Alex Mercer killed the MOTHER, and consume Elizabeth Greene.

Lastly, I watched as the Supreme Hunter tried to kill Alex Mercer, and was killed in the process, and as Alex Mercer disposed of the Nuclear Warhead in the waters outside NYZ.

Fourteen Months had passed, and the Second Outbreak began, as Alex Mercer transformed NYZ once more, and infiltrated Blackwatch and Gentek with his Evolved. During the second Outbreak, I had an unfortunate run in with one of the evolved, he had foolishly attempted to consume me.

I had been watching, listening, for I could sense the virus, and hide my own, I had known there was an evolved lurking nearby, along with James Heller. He had been looking for them for a reason which I did not know, when he found the one he was looking for, two more jumped in to aid in the fight, while a third ran off, picking me up in the process.

He proceeded to run up a nearby building, held me still, and punched through my torso, I felt no pain, for I knew that he would not survive, my body had turned nearly liquid, holding only the image of my body. His arm sank deep into my chest, where I solidified, Cinching his arm off, leaving me to consume his lost mass.

Staggering backwards he said "What are you?" I replied simply, "VARIENT" and grabbed him by the head, crushing it, and consuming him.

Not a drop of blood was left, not even a stain of the Evolved I had consumed, I cared not to know who it was that I had consumed, his memories I discarded, but his Mass would help strengthen me.

After the short work with the Evolved, I turned and watched as James Heller consumed the last Evolved, then I retreated back into the Red Zone. I had been building Strength, ready to take whatever challenge would face me, be it James Heller, another Evolved, or Alex Mercer himself.

My name is Varien Dathemire, and I am the VARIENT.

**This is a Footnote where I'll leave extra comments, they'll be in bold, well this first chapter is basically just to give background information on The Varient himself, and excuse the use of my Username for The Varient, I'm not really good with them. I'd like feedback, both positive and negative, positive tells me where I'm writing strongly, and Negative tells me where I need improvement.**


	2. Chapter 1 Return of ZEUS

I had observed the almost Cataclysmic battle between James Heller, and Mercer, it was truly a sight to behold. Mercer had expelled much of his strength when he had caused the second outbreak, and he had injected large portions of his own biomass into each of his evolved, and an even greater amount into Heller. Only after consuming his Evolved, was he a match for Heller, he could have won too, but his arrogance, and gloating in the power he had consumed clouded his judgment, and his decisions.

Mercer's arms were torn from his body, and consumed by Heller, all except his first blade. Mercer hadn't managed to retract that small amount of Biomass when he snapped his Whipfist at it, and Heller had overlooked it.

After Heller had performed his strange Mass Consumption Tendril Barrage, and cleared off of the roof, I took an easy leap to stand next to the small amount of mass that was Alex Mercer.

"Your in luck Mercer, seems your not as dead as most think" I said, lowering my hand into the sloppy pile of mass, taking it in, while preserving the memories, and thoughts contained within. At this point, Mercer was little more than he was when he first woke up from that Morgue, but he was alive.

There were sure to be a few infected stragglers left over that he could give Mercer a form with. Rather than Scouring the whole of NYZ, he performed something similar to what James Heller did, this time with tendrils that would seek out infected, crawling into small spaces and dragging them to the Variant.

When the last of the Infected were brought to him, he rejected all of their biomass, pouring it into a partially living pile of writhing mass. It began trying to take a comprehensible form, growing the head of a Brawler, several limbs of walker infected, and part of a Juggernaut. Because of all the conscious minds thinking alike, it was able to move and survive, but it was unable to focus, it's conflicting minds working against one another.

Varien shifted his arm into a large claw like appendage, drawing it above his head, and crushing the creature, smashing most of its solid form, reducing a large section of it to a writhing pool of biomass. He then shifted his arm into several tendrils, snaking them into the creature's liquid body, and pouring the life force, and consciousness of Alex Mercer into it. Mercer's superior willpower and mental fortitude allowed him to overcome with will of the beasts, and consume them, the remaining amounts of BLACKLIGHT quickly replicating themselves, and taking over the cells of the creatures.

The process of consumption took little time, but Mercer reforming his own body was a slow process, and The Variant stepped back. Admiring his own work, and looking over the memories he had retained from Mercer, from these memories, another Conscious awoke, and Varien smiled to himself, climbing up the side of a building, and tearing out a small chunk where he could sit, and observe.

Alex Mercer had awoken in the middle of a deserted, desecrated street, not knowing how he had got there he took a moment to think, and the last few minutes of life flashed before him, James Heller severing his arms—then nothing. But it had been dark, not daytime, it had been on a rooftop, not the middle of a street, and considering Heller's rage, he would have killed him, not thrown him from the building. He began looking around, the outbreak had ended, there weren't any infected roaming the streets. Had he somehow managed to survive as a trace of infection that slowly reformed months after the outbreak had ended? Had NYZ never been repopulated?

"Awake now are you Mercer?" said a voice that echoed through the streets, "good, I was afraid you wouldn't have been able to reform, but who am I kidding? You reformed after barely surviving that Nuclear explosion." Mercer kept looking around, as Varien dropped down from the building, putting a crater in the ground and kicking up a cloud of dust obscuring him from view.

Mercer attempted to transform his arm into a blade, but it felt as if he had been injected with the BLACKLIGHT Vaccine. He was unable to use his powers, he grabbed a nearby car and lifted it throwing it at this strange person, who simply lifted his arm, and knocked it out of the way.

"Don't bother, I'm quite a lot more powerful than you currently, it's not easy preserving one's consciousness, then putting it back into biomass for it to make a new body for itself" he said, flecks of Biomass flickering over his body "yours was especially tricky considering the small amount of your Biomass that was left of you."

"What are you talking about?" spat Mercer "are you saying you brought me back to life?"

"Well, a virus technically isn't alive, but even then, no, I didn't, I preserved you, and gave you enough strength to survive" Varien said, a flicker of amusement playing across his face.

"I suppose you think I owe you something now?" Mercer said, "No, I don't, but I do find it strange that you continue to carry such hatred, despite no longer remembering _why_ you hated humanity, _why_ you wanted to unleash the virus around the world" replied Varien.

Mercer thought for a moment, realizing he was right, he no longer hated, he no longer wanted to spread the virus, in fact, he returned to wanting it gone, wanting the virus wiped from the world.

"How do you know that?" Alex demanded, "That's an easy thing to find out when you have to pass the memories and thoughts of someone's conscious through your own to put them into a new body" Varien said simply.

Alex tensed, realizing that this person was some form of BLACKLIGHT that he had never encountered before. He looked around again, seeing the bare streets again, then spoke "Who are you? Did you get rid of the outbreak?"

"No, I didn't get rid of the outbreak, your adversary James Heller did that shortly after killing you" as he said these words Alex flinched "and who am I? I am VARIENT, a more versatile version of BLACKLIGHT." He continued, and demonstrated this by crouching over, and sprouting thin, leathery black wings, pulsing with red light.

"This is something that I doubt you could do" Varien said, folding the wings behind his back, then muttering "may come in handy, I think I'll keep these, your version of BLACKLIGHT re-purposes cells to suit it's needs, my variant of BLACKLIGHT however, re-purposes cells in any way that I want, rather than to suit needs."

The Variant then formed his hands into large claw like appendages, and began scaling the building at an incredible speed, Alex leaped up and began running up the face of the building, in an attempt to pursue The Variant. Varien stood at the top of the building, watching as Mercer closed in on him, he waited until Alex had began to get onto the roof, then The Variant grabbed him by the throat, and hurled him across the street into the building on the other side.

"Seek out your sister, she will be your salvation" said Varien, spreading the large leathery wings on his back, "don't follow me." With that, he leaped backwards off the building, spreading his wings, and taking flight down the street, leaving Alex alone once more.

**I've established that Alex Mercer is back, and why James Heller so easily beat him in Prototype 2, mostly because if you look at Prototype, and look at all the abilities you can get, and most of which are Mandatory, Alex Mercer is a walking Armoury compared to James Heller being a Weapon Rack. Anyway, from here the story should get interesting, if you don't think they are already. The next chapter should be up in at least a Week's Time.**


	3. Chapter 3 Athena's Revelation

Alex Mercer walked down the streets of NYZ, observing the devastation caused by the second outbreak. _His_ outbreak, the Mercer virus outbreak, it was ironic, he thought, because he had caused _both _outbreaks. But this was different, he was at the center of this outbreak, he had truly caused this one, of his own will and intention. He couldn't even remember what compelled him to do it, all he _did_ remember was that he thought less like a man, and more like the infected did, more like the horde.

Alex stopped, realizing he'd kept walking as he thought, looking about, he realized he was standing in front of Penn Station once more. The place where it began the first time, and where it began again, he grimaced as he thought of the lives lost during the first outbreak.

Then his thoughts turned to Dana, would she be willing to accept that he was alive, and wasn't how he was when she was imprisoned in the vault along with Amaya Heller. No, no one who had been imprisoned by their brother would believe they changed that quickly. But the fact that James Heller had killed him, Dana had to be aware of that, maybe if he had explained what happened, she would be more open to him.

This was enough reassurance for him to set out and find Dana Mercer, when he found her, he would prove to her that he wasn't a true monster. Alex Mercer set off as fast as he could down the desolate streets as fast as he could carry himself

Dana Mercer had been doing little other than resting and recovering after James Heller had taken his daughter, and left NYZ. The remaining uninfected living in the Red Zone were continuing their lives, now without the threat of the Infected invading their homes. Dana Mercer stayed in her safe-house, spending the last two days doing little more than resting, during the Second Outbreak, she had been breaking into Blackwatch Terminals, trying to find information on the source of the outbreak, spending most of her time doing this, she'd lost days of sleep over this, and spent the entirety of the first day sleeping. Now she wasn't sure what she was going to do, the Second Outbreak was over, but she'd done enough during it that Blackwatch would continue to look for her. She'd have to keep running, but it couldn't go on forever, she shifted in her chair as there was a knock on the door.

Dana froze, she'd let down her guard far too quickly, catching up on sleep had left her open to intrusions, and she should have been watching her cameras. Rather than approaching the door, she crept over to her computer, and activated the camera displays.

Dana wasn't sure what she expected to see, but what she saw was a man, with shoulder length hair, and an armour of sorts.

This strange person must have known something about her, no one she didn't know just showed up at her door. That meant he knew something, or needed to know something, she walked slowly to the door, picking up a small pistol as another knock sounded at the door. She unbolted the door, and stepped back pulling the door open, holding the pistol behind her back.

"Dana Mercer?" he asked "I need to inform you of something, your brother, Alex Mercer, he's alive" Dana froze, whenever anyone said the name Alex Mercer, part of her thought of the little boy that had cared so much for her as they grew up, but there was always the thought of the hate-filled monster that imprisoned her and Amaya Heller in a bank vault.

She dropped the pistol she'd been holding, the man's eyes followed it as it clattered to the ground, then he turned his gaze back to Dana. "I see this is a shock to you, perhaps it's best we continue inside" he spoke, ushering her back into her seat, and closing the door behind them.

"Why...but-how?" Dana said as she rubbed the sides of her head, "James said he'd killed him, and...absorbed him, and that's how he knew where to find his daughter and I."

"He did, the cause of the Mercer virus _was_ killed, but _Alex Mercer_ is alive" Dana stared at him, wearing an expression of pure confusion "I see, you don't understand, let me explain, do you remember Elizabeth Greene?" She nodded, Elizabeth Greene had been the perfect host for the REDLIGHT virus, the source of many viral strains, including the one synthesized into BLACKLIGHT. She had been the one to spread the first outbreak, after Alex had tried to find her, and question her about the virus.

"After Alex had drawn out and defeated The MOTHER, a large infected body that Elizabeth Greene controlled, Greene herself emerged from the collapsed remnants of The MOTHER, and Alex consumed her, gaining her thoughts, and her memories, do you see now?" he asked.

Dana thought for a moment, _he gained her thoughts, and her memories,_ that must be it. "He gained her thoughts and memories, that means that he began thinking like her?" the man nodded, then continued. "Yes, well, mostly, both Alex, and Heller are BLACKLIGHT, which re-purposes cells to suit it's purpose, but since they also absorb the thoughts and memories of a person, it melds both the minds of the Prototype, and the person being consumed." Dana pictured two drops of water combining to become a larger drop of water. "Greene, REDLIGHT was an ancient mind, developed over the course of roughly forty years, by the time Alex consumed her, she was a powerful mind, and she was commanding many Hunters, along with the Hydra's."

He paused for a moment, then coughed, and continued "The amount of time Greene had spent growing in strength she was at a point where she could rival Alex, REDLIGHT is significantly weaker than BLACKLIGHT, Alex was at base strength, while Greene was matured" he sighed "more accurately, Alex was stronger, so he retained control, and form, if he had been weaker, and Greene had been stronger, Alex would have consumed Greene, and Greene would have taken control of his mind, and become something much stronger, and more dangerous."

Dana sat, taking all of this in, then spoke "So your saying when Alex consumed Greene, she was strong enough that when their minds became one, he began thinking more and more like her?" He snapped his fingers, and pointed at her saying "Exactly! After that happened, it wasn't Alex Mercer that caused the second outbreak, it was more like... Alex Greene if you understand what I mean." Dana wasn't sure she could even trust this guy, let alone believe what he was saying about Alex, if he really _was_ alive.

The man walked back over to the door, opening it "Wait" Dana said "who are you? And how do I find you if I need more answers?" He smiled, "My name is Varien Dathemire, and don't worry, I'll find you." With that, he stepped out the door, and vanished, leaving Dana to bolt the door shut, and reflect upon what this person had said. Thinking about it, she realized Alex must have not been himself, which is why he caused the Second Outbreak... That meant there still was hope for Alex, hope, for her brother.

Deep within the heart of the Red Zone...

"So, what do you plan to do now?" a whispering female voice asked, "Now? I'm intrigued to see how the Virus can be changed now, how it can be expanded upon, what else can it do? Is there untapped potential it has? There's much I plan to do, which is one reason your standing before me now, and not a mess on the pavement." Varien had occupied the remains of a Gentek research facility, it had been abandoned for good reason, the virus had claimed most of the walls and the ceiling, but its equipment was still serviceable. That was all he needed, aside from samples of the virus, which were easy enough to come by, after all, he and his new accomplice were both made of the Virus, albeit different strains.

"What do you have in mind?" she asked, "I can only do so much for you, but you can do much for me." He nodded, "BLACKLIGHT re-purposes cells, but are those cells limited to beings such as Humans? Or could BLACKLIGHT be introduced to a plant, and would it become something new?" He looked at a few plant samples he'd gathered for the experiment, "I'm particularly interested in seeing how the carnivorous plants will react when injected with different strains of the virus, I expect it'll leave us with interesting creatures, most of which should be under our control, based on who gave the strand."

"When shall we begin?" she asked, "Our strains will last long enough for Blackwatch and Gentek to confirm the Second Outbreak is over, then we'll begin." She stared for a moment, then said "Which one of will begin the process?" he stopped, thought for a moment, turned to her and said "You should be the one to do it, I've had difficulty creating a walker-type strain like that" he paused for a moment "yes, you will do it, and I'll begin the strain injection." She nodded, turned, walked to the corner, and encased herself in the remains of the virus that were left in the base, as Varien began examining BLACKLIGHT under a functioning microscope.

**So my basic format is, write a chapter, and put a footnote end part to the chapter, detailing a sort of summary of what The Variant is doing thus far, to keep it up to date on what he's off doing. I kinda tried to make the sequence foreboding, without basically saying what they're going to do, because if I did, it wouldn't be as interesting to read. It's like if Alex Mercer had simply stated what he was doing throughout Prototype 2 at the beginning. It would have taken a lot away from the story.**


	4. Chapter 4 Shadows Grow Ever Longer

A Knock.

An Answer.

A Fear.

An Explanation.

An Apology.

Acceptance.

Alex Mercer, after searching the previous Safe-house, discovered Dana's location, and went to her. Dana had been fearful at first, but she kept in mind that which her previous visitor had said.

"I was expecting you, sort of, that's why I wasn't as surprised when you turned up on my doorstep" Dana said. Alex gave her a questioning look as he leaned against the wall next to Dana's computer, watching her sift through some information on the Blackwatch Database. "Expecting me?" he asked, when she didn't see his expression of confusion, "Heller _did_ tell you he killed me, didn't he?"

"He did, but I had an unexpected guest inform me that you were alive, in fact, he was implying that _he_ _himself_ brought you back" she said, turning to him. Alex stared at her for a moment, opened his mouth, hesitated, then spoke, "His name was-"

"Varien Dathemire" Dana cut in, "yeah, so its true, your alive, but how?" Alex walked over to the door, looking through the peep-hole to see if anyone was out there, more out of habit than for any particular reason, he'd been checking every few minutes, expecting a Blackwatch Raid or something.

"If he implied that he brought me back, and you picked up on it, either he was implying pretty hard, or you just pick up on more things than other people" Alex said, "he did bring me back, and I'm still not sure exactly how, he said he preserved my conscious and gave it a body, but I don't know how that works, I sure can't do it." He balled his hand into a fist, flexing his fingers a few times, "I don't know if he took anything in particular from me, but right now I'm no better off than I was when I escaped that morgue, I can't jump as high, run as fast, not even my shapeshifting powers work anymore."

"Alex, look at this" she pointed to an image of a desecrated Gentek lab on her screen, "this lab was overrun by the virus a few months ago, they abandoned it, but last night it re-connected to the Blackwatch server grid, and accessed all of the files, then immediately disconnected."

She turned around in her chair, saying "I don't know that anyone other than Gentek Associates, would be able to work that equipment, you might want to check it out if you head that way."

"I'm going to check it out now, I don't know that any one person can get all of Blackwatch's database accessed. It's either a team of rogues, or something's going on there."

Alex exited, and Dana bolted the door behind him again, it was true, there were even parts of Blackwatch that she couldn't access, it was held under extreme security, and only someone really high on the Blackwatch ladder could have done that, but what would they be doing in the Red Zone of NYZ?

Alex walked through the building in which Dana lived, stepping over the bodies of several infected, and exited the building, expecting the late afternoon sun, he was surprised to find it was long past sunset. He'd spent longer than he thought in Dana's company, at least she'd welcomed him back, but how did Varien know where she lived?

After thinking for a moment, he figured the reasonable answer would be to ask him when they again crossed paths. With that, he pushed through a door, and sprinted down the street, deftly leaping cars and military barriers.

"Wake up, my dear, so you may witness this, my newest creation" Varien said, drawing his hand across the cocoon of Viral material. It undulated, and opened like a flower, revealing a basin full of moving Biomass. He reached his hand inside, brushing it against a figure submerged beneath the moving surface, then withdrew his hand. The Biomass began sinking, drawing into the figure, which began stirring, and from beneath the still moving biomass, a feminine arm reached upwards, hand opening, reaching for him.

He grasped it, and pulled, revealing a half nude woman, who brushed hair from her face, and brushed her hands over her body, from where she touched clothes formed around her. Varien placed his hands on the woman's shoulders, and extended tendrils from his sides and back, and she mimicked him, the tendrils joined together momentarily, then retracted back to their bodies. He stepped back, she stood still, shuddered, then spoke "To what do I owe this gift?" Varien smiled, but said nothing, instead waving his arm towards a large plant-like creature that was growing at a rapid pace.

The woman walked towards it slowly, raising her arm up, and stroking the head of the creature, she turned to Varien with a smile upon her face, then said "It will obey?" He nodded, and demonstrated by pointing towards the shredded remains of reanimated infected bodies.

She moved to his side again, gave him an admirable look, then asked "What was it formed from?" After a moment of silence, Varien finally spoke "This is the product of REDLIGHT introduced into a Carnivorous plant, it can move, think, and act on its own, it can be commanded to do something, but it doesn't act like the Walker's did." Varien's arm grew a pulsing red vein, ending in a large light at the center of his hand, and he waved it towards the creature, which also grew a pulsing red light. He then waved his arm towards the remains of the walker infected, and the creature lifted its head, revealing that it was similar to a Hydra, protruding from the ground, it then turned, shot out some tendrils and drew the remains into its eager maw, after which, it grew in size again, and retracted back into the ground.

"Now, return to your sleep, when you next wake, you will be able to do everything I can." She embraced him, and he placed his arm around her, then she stepped into the cocoon of writhing biomass again, and sank into it, as it closed around her.

Varien approached the rest of the carnivorous plants, and the vials of Viral Samples, preparing to experiment further upon them when a loud crash sounded through the halls.

He spun around, quickly shifting his arms into large blades, while his body coursed, thickened, and hardened forming armor harder than steel on his body. Another crash sounded, and the doors were wrenched off their hinges, and thrown in the direction of the Viral Cocoon, Varien reacted instantaneously, lifting his leg, and jamming his foot into the ground, sending up several large spikes to spear the metal doors, preventing them from colliding with the cocoon.

The spikes retracted, leaving the splintered remains of the door on the ground. Whatever Alex had been expecting, it wasn't to see the figure of an armored individual with two blades for arms. He recoiled in surprise, jumping backwards, and forming a feeble armor over his own body, and gaining claws.

"Jumpy now are we?" Alex recognized this voice, this explained why there was Blackwatch activity, the Variant had probably infiltrated Blackwatch during the first outbreak, and probably had consumed a number of Blackwatch officials.

"So, what brings you to my neck of the woods today, Alex?" Varien asked, not removing his armor, nor lowering his blades. "You could say it was curiosity" Alex responded, slowly pouring more biomass into his armor to strengthen it, also doing the same for his claws.

"Well, your not exactly welcome here, not at this time anyway" Varien took a few steps toward him "so I'd appreciate if you'd leave, now."

"Eager to get rid of me aren't you? I'm not leaving until I get some answers from you."

"I will only give answers to questions I find that I owe you answers to" Varien lowered his arms, but they remained Blades, and he retained his armor still.

"How did you know where Dana lived?" Alex asked, taking a step forward, while looking about the room.

"I know everything you know, and more, when I put you in a new body every one of your memories passed through my mind, the simple experience of viewing your memories imprinted them upon my own."

Alex's eyes fell upon the remains of the door, the tips of the spikes that had protruded from the ground and caught the door, and the undulating cocoon of Viral mass behind it.

"What is _that_?" he asked, gesturing towards the cocoon, which seemed to hear him, and quivered a little as he said "that".

"_That_" Varien said, "is something you need not worry about" walking over and standing directly in front of it to keep Alex's attention from wavering, "is that all you wanted to know?"

"For now, yes, but I'll be back for more answers later, I'm sure" Alex said.

"Yes, you will, now leave, or I will make you leave" the Varient finished, and slowly began walking towards Alex, pushing him back out of the room. Alex then turned, and sprinted off to tell Dana what he'd learned.

**Well, it's been a while since I've updated. Mostly because I'm trying to be careful through my writing, and I re-read the previous chapters to make sure I'm not contradicting something I've already written. I'm also trying to provide suspense for certain characters, while developing their relationship with other characters. I'm also trying to prevent giving anything away, while setting up foreshadowing at the same time, which is fairly difficult for what I have in mind. Thanks for putting up with the large wait on this chapter also :)**


	5. Chapter 5 A Secret Revealed

The Variant let out a low guttural growl, Mercer knew where he was now, that complicated things. He returned to the large cocoon, and watched it for a moment, Alex had pointed it out quicker than he'd hoped. That put it, and the woman inside, at risk, and he wanted to avoid that, but in order to move her, he would have to interrupt her sleep, and her growth. In his frustration, he punched through a solid metal support beam, weakening the building, and dropping part of the roof. Another growl escaped his throat, now he _had_ to move, for _her_ safety, although her growth would be slowed as a result of this.

He tenderly brushed his hand over its surface again, causing it to once again undulate, and flower open, he continued to wake the woman, hearing the low groaning of the steel girders in the building, he knew he had to get her out of there quickly. The red light on his arm pulsed as he waved it towards the hole in the ground, from which the mutant plant-creature emerged, awaiting his request. He reached forward, grasping the now visible feminine arm, and pulling her quickly out of the cocoon, she emerged fully clothed this time, having retained them from her previous emergence.

She yawned, giving him a puzzling look, then hearing the groan of the building, and the slow cracking of the walls, knew why he had awoken her. The red light upon his arm flared as he waved it towards the cocoon, and telepathically he communed with the creature, instructing it to transport the cocoon underground with it until called again. Then, with the woman in his arms, the Variant rushed outside the facility, the starry sky and moon caught the girl's attention, as she stared in wonder at them, a large metallic shatter sounded. Varien moved further from the building as its steel skeleton gave out on it, sending the building crashing to the ground in a cloud of dust and debris.

He frowned, furrowing his brow, this would put a damper on his experiments, new subjects would be needed now. With a sigh of annoyance, he looked at the girl in his arms, still staring at the moon, he set her down. She wobbled a moment, then steadied herself, as he explained the situation.

Alex had gone nearly half way back to Dana's safe-house when he heard the crash, he skidded to a stop, turned, and watched as a large cloud of pale, moonlit dust arose from where Varien had been minutes before. Alex half hoped the building had taken Varien with him, but it was unlikely, fortunately for him, he'd be able to get more answers, unfortunately, he'd have to find him again. Alex set off for Dana's again, at a slower pace this time, trying to think of what he would tell Dana when he returned. It was strange, he'd gone there with the intent of finding who, or what was accessing Blackwatch, he'd gotten his answer, but at the same time, he didn't. There was something about when he was near Varien that addled his mind, reduced his focus, and seemed to put him at a disadvantage. And what _was_ that... _thing_, that had been in the corner? Alex realized he'd stopped and stood, nearly motionless as he thought about this, then realized he heard something, that something had stirred him from his thoughts, but he didn't know where it was coming from. It sounded almost like that of an aircraft, he glanced around, it seemed to be coming from everywhere, so he looked up...

After explaining to her that she would need to sleep once more after they found a new home, Varien grew his leathery wings again, but before trying to fly whilst carrying her, he flexed the wings. Their leathery complexion would do no good, and would only carry them for short bursts, he glanced around, taking steps toward the remains of the building, which Viral material had begun fleeing from. This material had more strength than that of other infected, even that of the Juggernaut's thick armor. It would do to strengthen his wings, he reached out, grabbing hold of some of the flickering strands, and consuming them, with one strand came another, and another. His wings flared red, then deepened to a dark black, then stretched, and enlarged until their span was well over thirty feet, then the surface of them writhed, as they formed a thick, malleable armor that covered them entirely. He looked upon his own handiwork, flexing his newly strengthened wings, then flapping them once, offsetting his own balance, sending him staggering backwards, and knocking a new cloud of dust into the air. Yes indeed, these would carry both of them, he took her in his arms once more, bent one knee, and kicked off hard, putting a small crater in the already desecrated road.

After gaining a considerable amount of height, he stretched his wings, and rather than flying caught the air, and glided, a good distance, then after losing enough height, he flapped, sending both of them back high into the air, the girl in his arms found this an enjoyable experience, and questioned him about it. "When I wake next, will I be able to do this too?" she stared at him, with large, eager eyes, brimming with admiration. "I've told you already, after it's done, you'll be able to do everything I can"

"Everything?"

"_Everything_" he reassured her, and they flew on, searching for a suitable place to call a "home" he rarely saw any moving figures, aside from a few survivors on rooftops, gathered around trash bins full of fire. Once he saw a figure standing in the middle of the street who turned thrice before looking up to see a gigantic wingspan blotting out the moonlight above him. Varien however, paid no mind to the figure, as he assumed it had been another of the survivors, looking for others.

Varien tilted his wings forward, gaining speed, he flew further, now they were above where Mother had emerged and done battle with Alex Mercer. He stopped mid-air, and dropped, landing on a building, overlooking Times Square, he folded his wings, and set the girl down.

"Stay here, please, just observe, I have a feeling Mercer will show up again" he told her, she nodded, and sat down.

Then he dropped to the ground, and walked closer to the crater that Mother created when she broke free of the ground. Less than half the distance to the crater he heard heavy thudding, large footsteps coming from one of the streets, whatever it was, it _thought_ it was being quiet, and was going to get the drop on him. It was wrong.

Varien stopped, his armor once again coursed down his body, his arms once again forming large blades, he spun around to find a Spiked Brawler leaping through the air towards him, he deftly stepped aside, holding his blade out in a way that it should sever one of the creature's limbs. Instead of slicing through, and cutting the limb from the Brawler, his blade sank through it like a hot knife to butter, and the limb quickly reattached to the creature's body.

He closed his eyes and sighed, this would prove more annoying than other challenges, his arms changing from blades back to normal, other than having denser armor. He leaped towards the Brawler, driving his fist into its face, knocking teeth from it, and removing one of its eyes. This time it did not immediately recover, its eye slowly began regenerating, at a pace too slow to help it. This was interesting, a Brawler susceptible only to blunt damage, it was engineered to rebuild small focused areas of damage quickly, but in doing so, it had been given a weakness, it wasn't prepared for heavy damage, spread over a sizable area of its body.

By now the eye had almost completely rebuilt itself, but the Brawler didn't care, it was more interested in its prey, circling around where Varien stood, calculating how it would administer its next attack. This was also an interesting aspect, this one actually _thought_, it didn't attack right away as the others did. It had finally formulated an attack strategy, it ran forward nearly half the distance between itself and the Variant, stopped, jumped backwards, lifted a car, and threw it at Varien.

His reflexes had been far too good for the car to impact him in a harmful way, as it approached, he did a back-flip, kicking the car nearly vertical into the air, changed an arm into the Whipfist, and speared it while it was still up in the air. With a slight grunt, he yanked his arm, bringing the car down in an arc, right upon the Brawler. The car had crushed the entire creature, but he wasn't sure that it was dead, he flung the car off to the side, retracting his arm, and forming it once again into densely armored fists.

It was not dead, but it seemed to have entered the Leader Hunter recovery state, when they were vulnerable, he prepared to consume it when he heard the girl speak.

"Wait" was all she said, and she dropped off the building, landing not with a crash, but with a catlike grace. She walked over to the creature, and placed her hand upon its head, he watched as she turned a finger into a needle like syringe, and injected some mass into it. He was about to ask her what she did when the red light on their arms lit up, and one formed on the brow of this creature.

He gave her an approving look at this intelligent move, she had prevented him from gaining a small amount of mass, and instead given them a guard-dog. It had a quick recovery state, as it began stirring, and slowly got to its feet, it simply looked at them now, recognizing them as either "friend", or "Master". Varien returned tot he crater, which still opened into a large dark pit, only a ring of moonlight was visible in the bottom. He looked at the girl, and jerked his head toward the crater, signaling her to jump down, and join him in a foray into the darkness. She took his hand, and they set forth, the pulsing light on their arms giving them all the light they needed, the Brawler led them through the tunnels.

Several hours passed as they traversed the tunnel, which ended in a large chamber, surprisingly devoid of infected material. Varien called for his experimental creature, breaking free of the wall, the creature drug itself into the chamber, the cocoon of material sliding along below it, attached to its jaw. He wasted no time feeding the creature some mass to reward it with, then repositioning the cocoon so that it could be accessed once more by the girl. She climbed into it again, sinking into its depths once more to continue her sleep. Once he knew she was sleeping, he let out a roar of pain, doubling over, his armor developing ragged pits, and his wings gaining large tears. He shed them, and his armor, re-absorbing the mass he had used for them, groaning, he removed a vial of BLACKLIGHT from his robe, and smashing it upon his chest, flooding his body with more Viral material. It would sustain him for now, but he would have to collect more biomass to keep it that way. _I need to continue my experiments, and make up for lost time,_ he thought, then drifted into a sleep of his own, to rebuild his strength.

It had been a flying Varien that he had seen earlier, now Alex sat once again upon Dana's couch, he was now more curious than ever about Varien, he should have asked more questions during their meetings. "Dana, does Blackwatch have any records of the Virus testing? During our first meeting he said that he was a Variant of the Blacklight strain of virus." Dana shrugged, and begun checking through some of the files "I'm not sure, it might take a while to find out." Alex got up, and left, leaving Dana to scour the Blackwatch database by herself, that was fine by her, she was used to working alone.

Nearly two hours later she found what she was looking for, there were three entries to the page, REDLIGHT and BLACKLIGHT were the ones highlighted, and there was an incomplete record of an unnamed virus after that. She opened the document, and began reading.

_This virus exhibits similar traits to that of BLACKLIGHT, but also exhibits Viral degeneration, through testing the first subject injected with BLACKLIGHT lasted three months before dying of what seems to be malnutrition. Subject Two lasted little more than three weeks before the Viral Degeneration claimed its body, but it didn't exhibit any signs of being malnourished as the other subject did when it died. When Subject Two degenerated, nothing was left, not even its confinement chamber had any traces of the Virus, it completely wasted away. When tests were performed again, Subject Three, also injected with the VARIANT strain, lasted nearly the same amount of time, and began showing physical signs of degeneration, pits and tears forming on its body. When Subject One was introduced, Subject Three assimilated Subject One, and temporarily reversed its degeneration, lasting another month before also wasting away. The decision was made to use BLACKLIGHT instead of the VARIANT strain, due to the difficulty to synthesize the VARIANT strain, and its degenerative affects being a negative property if it was made a Weapon. If several soldiers were made using the BLACKLIGHT strain, they would be slightly limited, but they wouldn't need to consume one of their own in order to sustain themselves, making BLACKLIGHT a superior choice. Experimenting on the VARIANT strain has been terminated, due to the loss of the only remaining sample at the creators hands._

Dana finished reading, Alex would like to see this when he returned again, this was an interesting discovery, especially because it included a weakness to The Variant if the need arises. At that moment, Alex entered, he'd obviously been out looking for Varien again, "Find anything?" he asked.

"Actually, yes, I did, here" she read off everything the document said.

"That doesn't exactly help me find him to get more answers" he said, coldly.

"But now you know more about him at least"

"I suppose, I still have to find him first though"

Alex seemed to be still annoyed at his own attempts of finding Varien because he announced his intentions to continue hunting for him shortly afterward, then he left, leaving Dana to finally get some rest.

Alex wanted answers, and for all he cared, he was going to get them, no matter the cost.


	6. Chapter 6 Fully Evolved

Varien stayed in his sleeping state for what must have been two weeks, and the girl would not stir unless he awoke her, or her Viral Adaption was completed. The Brawler had seemed to be undergoing a _"sleep"_ of its own, adapting to the new bond between itself and Varien, for it could now commune with him very clearly with the hive mind, in a way that they could each understand one another. Varien went to wave its arm to get its attention, and noticed the scrapes and bruises along it, _its acting even faster now, but I can't waste anymore Viral samples, I'll need to consume some infected creatures._ The Brawler then moved towards the gaping hole in the wall that was the exit, he then realized he was now thinking in the Hive Mind, which meant the Brawler had heard everything, and was now acting out his will. This left him with the time to continue his experiments on the Viral Samples, and check on the girls progress, which is what he planned on doing first. Approaching the Cocoon, his good arm and hand turned into many thin, Vein-like Tendrils, he let them snake over the surface of the cocoon, this let him see the process of her adaption without waking her, which prevented the slowing of her growth.

She was almost completely finished adapting, impressive progress for her, considering how many phases she'd gone through, from a simple BLACKLIGHT infection strain, to true REDLIGHT, then true BLACKLIGHT, and now she was adapting to the VARIANT strain. His goal with her was to remove or at least greatly weaken the Viral Degeneration, having gone through Two strains of Virus, she should retain certain qualities from each, and hopefully she would retain True BLACKLIGHT's Non-Degenerative nature, and maybe she'd adapt some new power of her own. Suddenly memories of before he was VARIANT flooded back to him.

"_That's whats interesting about this strain, each subject seems to exhibit a unique trait that no other subject has, unless they acquire it through assimilation, like subject seven did with subject Eight" he said._

"_I'm not familiar with this, please, explain for my benefit"_

"_Uh, well, during our initial testing between the strains, we discovered that this strain has Viral Degeneration, so documented testing was discontinued, but a higher up ordered testing continued, to see if this property could be weeded out, we didn't manage to remove its Degeneration when modifying areas of the genome, but the resulting sample bore unexpected fruit. It caused a unique change in every sample used within a subject, one subject exhibited lower Viral degeneration, while another exhibited an acidic fluid in place of any sort of blood."_

"_So during off-book testing, you modified the Virus further, producing a better or worse version?"_

"_That depends on your definition of better. Shall I continue?"_

_The second person nodded, looking at the vial of viral material with great interest._

"_Well, Subject Seven's unique property seemed to be that it's assimilation capabilities were much higher than the others, usually it required them to fatally injure one another in order for them to assimilate one another, but Seven took Eight right into its body, no difficulty, and no mess, it was as if two halves became a whole."_

"_What was Eight's unique property?"_

"_Well, its strength, and intelligence, that was right before the incident."_

"_I see, was it subdued?"_

"_It was terminated, it still had the Viral Degeneration, and it was also fatally weak to a vaccine we were testing, we weren't even designing it for the VARIANT strain, but it reverted the subject to normal, unfortunately with the degenerated effects, so its body, externally and internally, were pock-marked, and the DNA was too damaged to work with."_

How he remembered that day, that conversation had taken place a mere hour before an infected swarm began destroying the building they were in, it was that day, that moment, that hour, that he had accidentally set his own Virus into his system. The memory of that incident came rushing into his mind also.

_A large crash sounded, as a Hydra burst forth in front of the building he worked in, the vibrations knocked things from shelves, and tipped the case of Viral Samples over, luckily none of them broke. If he was to continue testing on them, he'd have to take them with him, he tucked the small case of Viral samples into his coat pocket, it was safe to keep them with the container they were in, airtight, and perfectly sealed. Now to get out without getting torn to pieces by the infected, he grabbed a reserve pistol from the emergency cabinet nearby. Despite hardly using a firearm in his life, he was a fairly good shot, too patient when it came to shooting, he would often wait until he got the best shot, usually aimed towards his target's head, which was more than enough for an infected walker. When he first left the lab, he attempted to skirt along the walls, very quietly so as to not draw any attention from anything nearby, but then he realized it didn't really matter if he was quiet or not to the infected, instead he continued along with caution, reserve pistol held up, waiting for anything to kick down the doors._

_He made his way forward, entering a stairwell, he proceeded downward, leaning over the rail to check for infected walkers, or worse, brawlers that were making their way up the stairs, fortunately there never were. He reached the third floor landing, expecting more deserted hallways, devoid of anyone, but now he was wrong, opening the door, he was face to face with seven infected, he slammed the door quickly, the lock was in the stairwell in case of an emergency. Locking it, he ran back up the stairs, putting two turns between himself and the infected who now were smashing down the door, the stairs gave them ground to cover when they got through the door, and gave him an opportunity to shoot them before they made it to him._

_The door burst down with a large crash, streaming the infected through, he dropped the first two with well placed shots between the eyes, the next two moved a little too much, causing him to miss twice, then finally place a correct shot on them. The last three were a little more cautious, the first two dropping easily, then the final one moved about quite a lot, causing him to miss a number of times. Finally it charged up the stairs towards him, he took aim, and pulled the trigger, _click_, shock ran through him, he'd run out of ammo, now he had no choice but to run for it, back up the stairs he went. Traversing up four stories, then deciding it would throw the infected off long enough if he jumped down, and grabbed hold of the railing two stories down. He climbed up onto the rail, and dropped, one flight of stairs passed, then he reached out and caught hold of the next rail, the sudden jarring stop nearly wrenched his arm out of socket, then he began sliding down to the corner where the stairs turned, and headed downward. His left arm began losing grip, while his right kept hold, but then he came to a stop, ramming his shoulder into the next set of railing, completely wrenching it out of socket. This kind of pain was new to him, he let out a scream of pain, and in shock, let go of the railing with his other arm, in his fall, his foot made contact with the next railing, and spun him over, now instead of falling onto his back, he would be falling onto his chest._

_The impact knocked the wind out of him, even worse was the many thousands of shards of broken glass now protruding from his chest, sticking into him as his weight jammed him down upon them. The Viral sample had smashed, and the nearest host was him, even worse, was his incapacitated state, and open wounds which the Virus quickly entered through. The pain was unbelievable, everything went quiet, and then his vision failed him, he thought he was going to die, but the Virus had need of him yet, and now, he _was_ the virus._

He was stirred from his memories by a loud tearing noise, he spun quickly to see the cocoon withering, turning into a thick black leathery material. He watched with great interest, as a large serrated blade split from the top, followed quickly by the rest of the girl's now completely matured and adapted body. She turned to the remains of the cocoon and quickly consumed it, she then turned to him and walked to him, slowly, approaching him almost like an animal stalks its prey. He did nothing but watch, wondering if she was going to attack him or not, the distance between the two was closing fast. Her blade arm had strangely disappeared without him noticing, she continued forward, and stopped in front of him.

She placed her arms around him in almost a loving embrace, he returned the gesture of affection, then asked, "How do you feel?"

"Powerful"

"Shall we begin?"

"Begin what?

"Testing, I must see how much you've adapted to"

She nodded, and they stepped apart, putting half the room's distance between themselves, they readied their weapons, and donned their armor, and began to do battle with one another. They fought for hours, testing everything she could do, she adapted to every situation he could put her in, but training in a room deep underground didn't offer much variety. She was very agile, even more so than he was, now he only had to test her viral composition, to see if his goal was accomplished. She held still has his vein-like tendrils settled across her arm, snaking inward ever so gently, it would reveal to him almost everything about her strain. He was right, she had retained certain aspects from both REDLIGHT and BLACKLIGHT, but she hadn't eliminated Viral Degeneration, her's was much slower than his, but it was still there.

He frowned, then said "You will need to know something, I attempted to weed this out but all it did was lessen its effect, you and I both suffer from Viral Degeneration, yours is quite a lot less severe than mine, but you will need to consume creatures with high viral content in order to reverse its effect."

"How does Viral Degeneration happen?"

"If you use too much strength your body will consume itself in order to fuel whatever your doing, which means you will need to consume other creatures to fill the gaps that are made when your body does this, even worse over time Viral Degeneration slowly consumes our bodies regardless of what we're doing."

"So we'll have to kill innocent people to sustain ourselves."

"Only if my next plan doesn't work, I'm going to be gone for a while, this plan is going to take some time, meanwhile, enjoy yourself, do what you want while I'm away."

With that, he leaped back up into the entryway, and sprinted off back towards the opening to the city. She intended to do just that, especially after seeing his ability to sprout wings, and fly, she planned on doing that for several hours, while enjoying the dark of the night, and the light of the moon, but only in the dark of the night, from what Varien had told her, she didn't need any Blackwatch men shooting at her while she was having fun.

She did a small in-place spin, looking about the room as she went, _Wow, this was great, it wasn't much different from BLACKLIGHT, but at the same time, it was very different_. Now she had to try something, _Varien told me Greene had created herself an entirely unique new form from large quantities of biomass, if I can do the same thing..._ _Hm... before that I'm going to make a few changes to my arsenal, __Varien gave me quite a short variety_. She set to work modifying her powers, her blades turned into very long, quite thin appendages extending quite far back behind her head, then developing serrated edges down the length of the blade. _Despite the serrated edge, a downward, forward cut, should slice cleanly through objects,while a downward, backward cut, should tear through even harder materials._ She was satisfied with that, despite appearing female, and having feminine tendencies, she was quite ruthless inside. She now set to work on developing a bestial form, in case Blackwatch ever caught up to her, she was going to make sure they were surprised, and at a disadvantage. She assumed that she inherited the ability to modify her form to her wishes from Varien, he had, after all, provided her with her new strain. _Now, Varien chose his new name, I shall do the same, but I first must think of one, lets see..._ For the next few hours, she pondered what she would call herself, eventually she continued outside, having some fun flying about the city in the slowly waning moonlight.

**Been a while since the last update again, School saps a lot of writing time out of me, I also have to contend with Writers Block quite often, resulting in me occasionally having to go off and do other things, while thinking about what I'm to write, mostly in terms of Dialogue. Then descriptive terms, which is occasionally tough to do, especially in the case of the Female character, who is currently un-named. I also have to write things in a balanced matter, even if it doesn't seem balanced at first, such as the concept of Viral Degeneration being recently introduced. Thanks for putting up with the wait, I'm surprised this little Fan-Fic has received so many views.**


	7. The Variant Rewrite Announcement

Hello again after a long time, this is Varien Dathemire, writer of The Variant Prototype Fanfiction. After some thinking and careful consideration, I've decided not to continue writing The Variant, and instead, rebooting it, with some input from the Reviews I've received, I'm going to tear it all down, and build it back up from the beginning.

Instead of starting After the second Outbreak, it's going to be rewritten, starting roughly in the midpoint between The First Outbreak, and the Second, possibly carrying through from there, Or taking place in a Side-Story Dimension thing taking place During the Second Game, Behind the Scenes, or in something that Contrasts the events of Prototype 2.

The characters are going to be changed as well, along with the story behind it all.

Due to the Character submission page, I've received a number of entries, and I feel obligated to include those entries in the story somehow, despite this rewrite not including a large number of Prototypes.

It may involve Crossover material as well, but I'm undecided on that point.

If your curious as to why I've decided to rewrite, I'll explain briefly here:

Everyone who makes something with flaws either decides it's time to end it, or rework it, I've decided to rework it, planning it through far more this time, and outlining all of the story a bit better for myself, before writing anything about it. I feel it's a bit too Messy at this point, and I've essentially built The Variant character up too much, despite Viral Degeneration, he's essentially Immortal without the use of Fire or a Cure.

In that regard, The character needs to be cleaned up and built up Manually in a progressing manner, rather than starting with Nigh-Godlike abilities due to the resources available to him.

Things that will be changed:

Story

Character Background

Time Frame

Character Amount

Things that will remain Unchanged:

Characters Themselves

Certain Character Abilities

Part of The Variant's Goal

The current incarnation of "The Variant" will die off soon enough due to Document Life, and as a result, the rewrite will take it's place.

Thanks for the support and critique given to This Incarnation, it should lead to a superior Rewrite.


End file.
